BP to clean out abandoned Amoco pipeline in Cook Inlet

by The Associated Press

BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. will clean out an abandoned undersea pipeline, a process that could leave an oil sheen in Cook Inlet, officials said.

The pipeline, which was formerly owned by Amoco and hasn’t been used since 1974, starts in the Trading Bay area on the west side of the Inlet and comes ashore at Nikiski.

Workers determined last summer that small oil sheens appearing in the vicinity of the pipeline were caused by residual oil leaking out of the line, said BP spokesman Paul Laird.

“We figure the line is probably corroded and whatever very little oil is left in the line had begun to seep through places where it has rusted through,” he said.

Workers put a vacuum device on the line and the leaking stopped. Now they’ll try a more permanent fix. Crews plan to send a “gel pig” down nine miles of pipeline June 23 or 24 to clean it out. The pig is a long slug of foam and nontoxic gel that will run down the line and push out residual oil, Laird said. Some might squirt out any holes in the pipe.

“It should be very, very little,” Laird said. Only a few barrels of oil at most are believed to remain in the line.

BP will have a surveillance team on the scene, and a spill cleanup organization, Cook Inlet Spill Prevention and Response Inc., will have boats on the water.

Any oil or contaminated water the pig pushes out of the 10-inch pipe will be collected and treated at Nikiski, Laird said.